Nov. 16, 2010

WICHITA MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO COLLECTING MORE THAN 3 MILLION CHILD PORNOGRAPHY PHOTOS

WICHITA, KAN. – A Wichita man admitted in U.S. District Court in Wichita Monday that he collected more than 3 million child pornography photographs, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Donald W. Schmidt, 74, Wichita, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. In his plea, he admitted that he was trading child pornography over the Internet via a peer-to-peer network when a police investigator in Boynton Beach, Fla., downloaded child pornography from Schmidt’s computer.

In March 2010, Wichita police served a search warrant at Schmidt’s home in Wichita. They found two computers hooked up to separate Internet service providers and eleven banker’s boxes containing boxes of CDs and DVDs. Forensic analysis identified an estimated 3 million-plus images of child porn on the computers, external drives and disks. Schmidt admitted using the peer-to-peer program to distribute child pornography, chatting online about molesting children and organizing his child porn collection to be stored on disks.

Sentencing is set for Jan. 31, 2011. He faces a penalty of not less than five years and not more than 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on the distribution charge and a maximum penalty of 10 years and a fine up to $250,000 on the possession

Grissom commended the Wichita Police Department, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hart for their work on the case.